Please Donate To My Blog
February 17, 2010 by Jeffrey
Filed under Jeffrey's Corner
We have all seen them; Blogs with the little pay-pal donate to my cause buttons. However a Blog is not a cause, unless you get into the “.org” domain names. You see these donate buttons mentioned by the quote; unquote, ProBloggers as a way to monetize your Blog. For some reason, they always leave me dry. I see them used most often on software sites or plug-in sites. However that is a location where I have greatly benefited and yes I have donated to software and plug-in sites.
There is something that sets me back about the “donate button” being on anyones Blog, of course you don’t see them on the ProBloggers site, they are pretty much set. You mostly see them on the amateur Bloggers sites. When you reach a level of ProBlogger, (I’m going to use that term loosely here) your time is at a premium and you have to fly from site to site and cover as much ground as you can. I’m always willing to look at new sites be they Blogs or otherwise, but I can now size up a Blog, pretty quick. If I arrive at a Blog and I see where the site is monetized by either the donate button or with adsense, I know right away that it is not a “ProBlog“; I know that I don’t belong there. I’m gone!
I’m not saying that this is wrong or bad or anything else for that reason. It’s just that I’m personally left with an unprofessional feeling when confronted with one, at least as it pertains to Blogs. I would love to hear from you on this issue! What do you think about an area for donation on someones Blog. Have you ever donated to anyone’s else’s Blog?
Oh, by the way, I dare you! Yeah, that’s right, go ahead and click on that big donate button at the top of this post!
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Twitter: hotblogtips
says:
I have several sites, some I monetize with ads, some I sell my products on (and make more money on those sites), but saying that a site that has ads or adsense is not a “ProBlog” and you leave is a mistake in my eyes. You have ads on this site, I don’t see your site as a “problog” so should I stop reading it?
I can see where the “donate” button may leave a bad impression, but who am I to judge how someone monetizes?
Keith´s last blog ..Drooling On PageRank
Hi Keith,
The first step I took after reading your comment, was to check out hotblogtips.com. I didn’t think or couldn’t remember if you had any adsense on your Blog. With a present Alexa ranking of 214,013, I would have to consider your Blog a “ProBlog” and I see no adsense because the ad space is too valuable for that type of monetization.
My problem is that for the most part (not always) adsense is used by static Blogs that offer no quality content.
When I was first establishing Bloggers Market, I noticed that the Blogs that carried adsense were not really providing me with any quality content and were a waste of time, so I guess I have just come to be a little leery of them.
As a final thought, I saw a re-tweet this morning about someone who did a survey on the “Adsense for Domains” program and published the figure of 500 million dollars a year that is earned by Google on this program.
Indeed, who am I to judge how one monetizes their website, looks as if Google is making a fortune at adsense.
Twitter: israelimom
says:
I’m with Keith on this one. Why do you equate a “donate” button to adsense? IMO, Adsense is just like any other ad – just uses a CPC model rather than a CPA model. To the visitor, whether a text link is served by Adsense or placed by you for an affiliate product, doesn’t make any difference.
Anne Moss´s last blog ..Would You Have (Semi) Nekkid People on Your Blog?
Hi Anne,
Thanks for stopping by!
Do I understand this right? You have been at this Interweb thing for around 10 years. Ahh, a quick look see shows no adsense and no donate button on your website! Hey, ……… I’m just sayin!
Twitter: hotblogtips
says:
Jeffrey, I actually do have adsense on my site, I just use a plugin that doesn’t show the adsense until the article is a certain number of days old, this way my regular readers and subscribers don’t usually see the ads and those that come from search engines will. I do this because my research says that RSS subscribers don’t click ads as much as search traffic does.
I wasn’t trying to be offensive in my comment, was just making a point.
Keith´s last blog ..Removing DoFollow From This Site
Hi Keith,
I appreciate your follow-up! With comments such as yours, my readers are assured of an even debate and protected from the “World According To Jeffrey”
Thank you and as always is great to hear from you on any subject.
Well, I just swung by because I saw your commentluv enabled comment and the outrageous cheek of this headline made me want to find out who’d posted it:)
I agree, it is a bit squirmy asking for donations. Amazingly the Donations link has only recently been removed from the Zen Habits site but obviously LB must have made some $$ by this means or he wouldn’t have kept it there for so long.
I wonder what you would make of my site with no means of making money at all! It’s coming, I’m just trying to work out the best way but no, I don’t think donations is it:)
Keep up the great writing and curiosity arousing headlines:)
Hi Annabel,
Thanks for stopping by! I took a look at your Blog. I would think that you should be ready to start the process of monetization. As to how …. to each his/her own. I’m kinda in a strange area right now with my own monetization.
I don’t have a lot of experience here. I have only been earning an income online for about six months. So I’m no expert. I really have modeled myself after what I have observed from the top Blogs out there.